Quotes from Vasily Grossman, Life and Fate

There's nothing more difficult than saying goodbye to a house where you've suffered.

In great hearts the cruelty of life gives birth to good.

Why do people have memories? It would be easier to die - anything to stop remembering.

When you think about new-born babies being killed in our own lifetime, ' he said, 'all the efforts of culture seem worthless. What have people learned from all our Goethes and Bachs? To kill babies?

Both his voice and eyes had the burning cold of alcohol. His strength no longer lay in his military experience or his knowledge of the map, but in his harsh, impetuous soul.

I don't want you to be young and beautiful. I only want one thing. I want you to be kind-hearted - and not just towards cats and dogs.